Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Patience Taught By Nature Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ O DREARY life,’ we cry, ‘ O dreary life ! ‘And still the generations of the birdsSing through our sighing, and the flocks and herdsSerenely live while we are keeping strifeWith Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knifeAgainst which we may struggle ! Ocean … Read more…

Perplexed Music Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holdsA dulcimer of patience in his hand,Whence harmonies, we cannot understand,Of God; will in his worlds, the strain unfoldsIn sad-perplexed minors: deathly coldsFall on us while we hear, and countermandOur sanguine heart back from the fancylandWith nightingales in visionary wolds. We murmur … Read more…

Sonnet 01 I thought once how Theocritus had sung Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ I thought once how Theocritus had sungOf the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,Who each one in a gracious hand appearsTo bear a gift for mortals, old or young:And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,I saw, in … Read more…

Sonnet 02 But only three in all Gods universe Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ But only three in all God’s universeHave heard this word thou hast said,?Himself, besideThee speaking, and me listening! and repliedOne of us . . . that was God, . . . and laid the curseSo darkly on my eyelids, as … Read more…

Sonnet 03 Unlike are we unlike O princely Heart Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ Unlike are we, unlike, O princely Heart!Unlike our uses and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surpriseOn one another, as they strike athwartTheir wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, artA guest for queens to social pageantries,With gages from a … Read more…

Sonnet 04 Thou hast thy calling to some palace floor Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ Thou hast thy calling to some palace-floor,Most gracious singer of high poems! whereThe dancers will break footing, from the careOf watching up thy pregnant lips for more. And dost thou lift this house’s latch too poorFor hand of thine? … Read more…

Sonnet 05 I lift my heavy heart up solemnly Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,As once Electra her sepulchral urn,And, looking in thine eyes, I overturnThe ashes at thy feet. Behold and seeWhat a great heap of grief lay hid in me,And how the red wild sparkles dimly … Read more…

Sonnet 06 Go from me Yet I feel that I shall stand Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall standHenceforward in thy shadow. NevermoreAlone upon the threshold of my doorOf individual life, I shall commandThe uses of my soul, nor lift my handSerenely in the sunshine as … Read more…

Sonnet 07 The face of all the world is changed I think Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ The face of all the world is changed, I think,Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soulMove still, oh, still, beside me, as they stoleBetwixt me and the dreadful outer brinkOf obvious death, where I, who … Read more…

Sonnet 08 What can I give thee back O liberal Poem  ………………. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning _______________________________________________________________________________________ What can I give thee back, O liberalAnd princely giver, who hast brought the goldAnd purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,And laid them on the outside of the-wallFor such as I to take or leave withal,In unexpected largesse? am … Read more…